Runaway BoatS

At every retreat that we went to out on the Island, Uncle Byron gave the same speech about water safety and general camp rules.  It was the same every time and many repeat campers had the whole speech memorized right down to the intonation of the jokes.  

The most famous part was that - "on the Island even the fish wear lifejackets."

Uncle Byron and I weren't very well liked when we first came to the island because we insisted on standard rules for all to follow.  Rules in Brazil are always made to be twisted just a little at best, and absolutely disregarded at the most.  Yeah, that's a cultural generalization based on my American upbringing but I stand by it.
Anyway, on a particular retreat, the steering system of one of the pedal boats had been broken. Uncle Byron pushed it way up on the beach away from the other boats and removed the cloth seat so that no one would mess with it.  It was also getting close to night time and all the other canoes and kayaks had already been put away as well.

Two boys snuck down to the beach as everyone else was taking baths for supper and getting cleaned up.  They hooked the seat back up and pushed the pedal boat back down to the water and off they went.  These particular two had already been reprimanded when we were coming in to the island on arrival.  Before we got to the island they jumped off the boat to swim in.  This was in direct violation of a big rule.  Their pastor didn't want to punish them too harshly for their offense at that time.

And so, off they went. They didn't go very far before they realized something was wrong with the boat.  The wind was very strong that day and they were being pulled out farther and farther from the shone away from the island.  Thankfully someone on shore spotted them and went to tell Pastor Byron.

Uncle Byron and his assistant, Adilson, went out on the big boat to go rescue the good-for-nothings.  They didn't think that it would take toooo long so they left the anchor on shore and took off.

Winds were strong and as they got close to the pedal boat it was hard to manuever.  Finally they got close enough to get one of the two boys onto the big boat when a strong wind pushed the boats away from each other.  As the pedal boat was floating away again all of a sudden the engine on the big boat went chug, chug, kaputt!
Uncle Byron had been dealing with a problem with air getting in the fuel lines.  An air bubble had come up in the fuel system cutting off the engine

Uncle Byron knew what it was right away and hollared out to 

Adilson - Throw the anchor!  Throw the anchor!

Adilson hollared back - What anchor?

Meanwhile the pedal boat starts drifting farther and farther away again with one boy still aboard and it started getting dark.  What had started off as a quick and easy rescue mission was now a great big mess.  Uncle Byron went to work on the engine while Adilson tried to keep an eye on where they were heading and where the pedal boat was.  As it got darker Adilson saw the channel marker buoy and was miraculously able to steer some with the rudder to get close enough to snag it with a rope.  (There is some doubt at this point as to whether William was also along and may have been trying to steer the boat).  They had also just barely managed to not hit a small rock island that would have seriously damaged the hull.

Okay, so now they are at least tied down to something and were able to work a little better to get the engine running again.  But by this time they have no clue as to where the pedal boat had gone and it was pitch dark.

After they got the boat running again they turned on the big spot light and began looking for the other boat.  It had drifted kept a bit away.  Eventually they found it, tied it on to the big boat before getting the boy off (a small mistake made on the first go around), and then got the boy onto the big Noé boat.  Needless to say, he was very happy to be rescued.  Apparently he had quite a spiritual awakening on that crazy boat ride and repented of all his sins.  A few years later he went to Bible college to study to be a pastor!

When Uncle Byron and the group got back to the island they were given a heroes' welcome with cheering people 

and happily weeping women. 

Two morals of the story:

First of all, never leave home without an anchor.

Second, don't mess with pedal boats that have no seat.